Ah yes, Facebook. The site that trumps all. Myspace, Friendster, Twitter, you name it. Facebook is still the biggest (and arguably the best) of all social networking sites. Facebook addicts know how amazingly time-consuming it can be. And all Facebook users look upon the select few who have resisted joining this peer pressured giant with awe and wonder.
As much as I like to use Facebook, our blog post assignment for this week is to propose ways to outcompete Facebook. So, here goes:
If I were a business competing against Facebook, I would...
...be up front about privacy with my users. Facebook is known for changing the default privacy settings on everyone's Facebook account with very little to no notice to the user. One of the funniest examples of this is when nearly 300 personal photos of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg went public when they switched privacy settings. People need to know exactly who has access to their profiles at all times. This isn't possible when the company suddenly changes their privacy settings, oftentimes without user knowledge.
...capitalize on advertisement, not market research. Sure, Facebook may give themselves permission to sell data from our profiles in some tiny black font in their Terms and Conditions. But who reads those word-for-word anyways, other than lawyers and the extremely cautious? People need to know that they can trust those who develop and manage the social networking sites they use, and that means not selling information about them to different companies unless that part of the deal has been made VERY clear to the user, and the user has given them permission.
...allow people to "Follow" their friends. Facebook has a news feed that enables users to "Hide" certain people or applications or pages, but they do not have a way to choose specifically who or what shows up in your feeds. People like to choose the news they get.
...add voice and video chat capabilities, and also easily visible privacy settings that let users choose who can call them and who cannot. This could potentially increase revenue by increasing the time people spend on the social networking site, and thus increase advertising time.
...add TV shows and movies along with the ability to see what your friends are watching, or even watch with them and chat while you're watching. This would once again increase advertising space and time, as well as help users strengthen their relationships.
Facebook has an incredible number of users, but they have done a few things that make their user unhappy and uneasy. In the Facebook competitor social networking site, I would address those privacy concerns and add features that facilitate more interaction between friends in order to increase the average amount of time they spend active on the site each day and to increase the overall number of users.
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Enhanced privacy settings would probably serve as a good way to attract users away from Facebook, assuming that a core part of this new site's message is "secure private info" and that message was heavily advertised. After all, it is pretty rude of Facebook to treat its users information so lightly (not that I really care, but given the option between two sites of comparable quality and that I had not invested any time in at all, the one that is more secure is more attractive, I'd imagine).
ReplyDeleteI guess "more respect for the user" is a key theme of your new site, as yes, the ability to "follow" friends is certainly a nice idea. Less trouble clicking through the windows is a nice feature.
Adding TV shows and movies... I guess it's like what another blogger said, forming partnerships with other companies or something is bound to help both companies out. You make a great point about increasing advertising space and time, as users are now spending more time watching shows AND on the new site! So there's a potential source of revenue, I guess, that Facebook presumably does not have.
(This is written as if I know what I'm talking about when it comes to business, and my guesses may be close enough to the truth anyway)
I think adding TV and movies is a good idea. Watching a video, TV show, or movie with friends through a social networking site and having the ability to chat during it could be very compelling. Already on IM, a good chunk of my chats is me or the other person linking a video off YouTube and IMing each other about it while watching. I believe Microsoft is trying this kind of system out on the 360, the ability to party chat while watching the same TV show or movie.
ReplyDeleteI really like the TV/movie idea. I think it is important for social networking websites to include many various activities that friends can involve themselves in to interact with each other. I personally enjoy watching TV or movies with other people, because it gives me an opportunity to express my opinion on the show and make a few funny remarks here and there. It would be awesome to simulate this feeling of watching a show with your friend, no matter where they are.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of allowing users to choose what they want to see from their feeds. Sometimes, too many feeds that explodes the homepage are really annoying. So the selections of specific types or feeds or friends who you want to get news from may narrow the sources of explosive news and only show the users their concerns.
ReplyDeleteAnd the thought of adding the function that shows what your friends are watching is quite appealing to me. And that would be a perfect way to keep an eye on the pop trend.
I agree that privacy is one of the major concerns for all of the online social networds like the Facebook. However it's definitely hard to get a clear knowledge on what needs to be protected and what needs to be open for a huge pool of various users.